I used to be tall, but at my age, I’ve been in my shrinking stage for a while. What I have lost in height has been gained on my “Grog Belly”. When I’m with people of my generation, I still rate in height. When I…
Posts published in “June 2024”
There is an expression, “Wooden ships and iron men.” The expression came from a book of poetry published in 1933 by Rosemary and Stephen Vincent Benet titled Clipper Ships and Captains.There was a time before our time,It will not come again,When the best ships still…
The passengers boarding the SS St Nicholas that warm evening at the Baltimore Wharf were relatively happy considering there was a civil war raging between the North and the South. Amidst the hustle and bustle of boarding some sixty passengers, there emerged an elegantly dressed…
The flickering of the amber light on the glass panes drew her attention away from her knitting. She placed the half-completed sweater down on her seat as she stood up and walked over to the window to take a closer look at the light. Her…
Although my nautical pursuits mostly involve pleasure boating, the recent tragedy of the container ship M/V DALI running into and destroying the Francis Scott Key bridge in Baltimore – and then all the theories, opinions and speculations expressed by so many with no real knowledge…
Chris Craft founder Chris Smith, when a boy, enjoyed duck hunting, and as a hobby, carved his decoys from wood, which got him interested in boat building. He built his first boat with his brother Henry in 1874, a 13-foot skiff. Both brothers started to…
I recently started the much hated (by me!) job of cleaning the running gear on the boat to get her ready to launch. It seems the older I get the less I look forward to laying under the boat scraping off the barnacle remnants before…
Oh! Those things that go bump in the night! Especially when you are not on board to check what the heck is grinding away at your boat.It happens all the time, especially in marinas, but could take place at any time in a bad situation.…
The recent collision involving the container ship Dali and the Francis Scott Key Bridge brings attention to an issue that has received greater attention in recent decades. As the dimensions of cruise ships and container ships have grown, it underscores how critical things can be…
I count June as summer even if the official day is the 20th. Other than having to wait until the 23rd for Black Sea Bass to open, just about everything that swims in our waters is fair game. Striped bass, blues, fluke, porgies, weakfish inshore…